WikiLeaks (National Archives and Records Administration)

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=NARA-NGC-2019-000481&type=request)
* Tracking Number: NARA-NGC-2019-000481
* Requester Name: Emma Best
* Date Submitted: 05/22/2019
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I seek any and all documents in the agency's possession that pertain to the WikiLeaks website or organization from January 2006 to the present date, including but not limited to emails, memos, notes, briefings, reports and other documents related to, mentioning or generated as a result of:

* guidance and instructions for employees regarding visiting the website or otherwise reading or learning about it in the news

* internal reactions to the website's existence and disclosures

* damage reports regarding the website and its disclosures

* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential leaks to the website

* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential unauthorized viewing of the website or news reports analyzing it and/or its contents

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Emma Best

The FOIA request - NARA-NGC-2019-000481 description has been modified. Additional details for this item are as follows:
* Tracking Number: NARA-NGC-2019-000481
* Requester: Emma Best
* Submitted Date: 05/22/2019
* Description: To Whom It May Concern: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
I seek any and all documents in the agency's possession that pertain to the WikiLeaks website or organization from January 2006 to the present date, including but not limited to emails, memos, notes, briefings, reports and other documents related to, mentioning or generated as a result of:
* guidance and instructions for employees regarding visiting the website or otherwise reading or learning about it in the news
* internal reactions to the website's existence and disclosures
* damage reports regarding the website and its disclosures
* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential leaks to the website
* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential unauthorized viewing of the website or news reports analyzing it and/or its contents
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not. Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely, Emma Best

Ms. Best,

Please see the attached two initial responses for FOIA requests that the
National Archives General Counsel's Office forwarded to the Office of
Inspector General (OIG) for processing. I am the counsel at the OIG and
solely responsible for processing these. I'm a little confused on the
requests and want to make sure I'm getting you all the information you are
requesting, so if it is at all possible please give me a call tomorrow at
301-837-1966 to discuss. Thank you.

Respectfully,

John Simms
Counsel to the Inspector General
Office of Inspector General
National Archives and Records Administration
301-837-1966

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS TRANSMITTAL MAY BE CONFIDENTIAL AND MAY
BE PROTECTED FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND/OR ATTORNEY
WORK-PRODUCT PRIVILEGES. THE INFORMATION IN THIS TRANSMITTAL MAY ALSO BE
SUBJECT TO ADDITIONAL CLAIMS OF PRIVILEGE IF COVERED BY A DISCOVERY
REQUEST, OR A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST UNDER 5 U.S.C. § 552. IF
YOU RECEIVED THIS TRANSMITTAL IN ERROR, ANY STORAGE, COPYING, DISSEMINATION
OR DISTRIBUTION OF THIS TRANSMITTAL AND/OR ATTACHMENTS IS PROHIBITED. IF
YOU RECEIVED THIS TRANSMITTAL IN ERROR, PLEASE NOTIFY THE SENDER VIA A
RETURN E-MAIL TRANSMISSION AND DESTROY THE TRANSMITTAL.

Please see the attached letter.

A fix is required to perfect the request.

September 13, 2019

Ms. Emma Best
MuckRock News, DEPT 73721
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144

Re: Request for Records Dealing with Wikileaks (NARA OIG FOIA 19-18)

Ms. Best,

This email is in regards to a FOIA request you sent the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA), tracking number NARA-NGC-2019-000481
requesting, from January 2006 to present: “Documents that pertain to
Wikileaks from January 2006 to present, including but not limited to
emails, memos, notes, briefings, reports and other documents related to,
mentioning or generated as a result of:

• guidance and instructions for employees regarding visiting the website or
otherwise reading or

• learning about it in the internal reactions to the website's existence
and disclosures

• damage reports regarding the website and its disclosures

• efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential leaks to the
website

• efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential unauthorized
viewing of the website or news reports analyzing it and/or its contents.”

NARA’s Office of General Counsel (NGC) sent your request to the Office of
Inspector General (OIG) for processing. For your information, the OIG is
an independent unit of the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA) tasked by Congress to combat fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement
within NARA. As such, we have no control or authority over records kept
and maintained by any other government agency, or even any office at NARA.
We only control those records generated within the OIG alone. Accordingly,
no other office at NARA controls OIG records.

In my initial response to you on June 20, 2019, I stated I found three
types of records potentially related to your request. First were things
such as newsletters and emails sent to groups, which had various public
news stories summarized or listed which were publically available and not
related to any agency actions. These were considered unresponsive.
Second, several records belonging to NARA as an agency that were
potentially responsive were referred over to the NGC FOIA office to review
and potentially include in their response. Finally, the OIG Office of
Investigations had some potentially responsive records, which were sent to
the FOIA office of another agency which had equities in them for a
consult. This response covers these last records, and completes our
response on this FOIA request.

Your request and the potentially responsive records were sent to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and were assigned FBI FOI/PA Request
# 1438678-000. The redactions made by the FBI show on the attached
document as white blocks with a black outline and the reasons for the FBI’s
redactions are labeled by each block. In addition to these redactions, the
NARA OIG also made additional redactions, which show as solid black boxes.
These are labeled with the reason as well. These additional redactions
were made under FOIA Exemptions b(6) and b(7)(C) due to the privacy
interests of the other parties involved. Redactions pursuant to Exemptions
b(6) and b(7)(C) included information that constituted a clearly
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy and/or records compiled for law
enforcement purposes that could reasonably be expected to constitute an
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Information compiled for law
enforcement purposes that could reasonably be expected to interfere with
enforcement proceedings is redacted pursuant to Exemption b(7)(A). Law
enforcement information which could reasonably be expected to disclose the
identity of a confidential source is redacted under Exemption b(7)(D).
Information that would disclose techniques and procedures for law
enforcement investigations or prosecutions which could reasonably be
expected to risk circumvention of the law is redacted under Exemption
b(7)(E).

You have the right to administratively appeal those determinations by
writing to the Archivist of the United States, National Archives and
Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740, within
ninety (90) calendar days of the date of this letter. If you choose to
appeal, your appeal letter and its envelope should be clearly marked
“Freedom of Information Act Appeal,” and you should explain why you believe
NARA should release the withheld information. Any appeal will be
coordinated with the Department of Justice Office of Information Policy
regarding the FBI redactions.

If you would like to discuss the NARA OIG redactions before filing an
appeal to attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals
process, you may contact the OIG’s FOIA Public Liaison, James Springs, for
assistance at:

National Archives and Records Administration
Office of Inspector General
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 1300
College Park, MD 20740-6001
(301) 837-3018
james.springs@nara.gov

Alternatively, you may seek dispute resolution services on the FBI
redactions by contacting the FBI’s FOIA Public Liaison by emailing
foipaquestions@fbi.gov. If you submit your dispute resolution
correspondence with the FBI by email, the subject heading should clearly
state “Dispute Resolution Services.” Please also cite the FBI FOIPA
Request Number assigned to your request (#1438678-000) so it may be easily
identified.

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through the FOIA Public
Liaisons, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road–OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
ogis@nara.gov
ogis.archives.gov
202-741-5770 or 1-877-684-6448

Finally, in accordance with Department of Justice guidance, I would also
like to notify you that Congress excluded three discrete categories of law
enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the
FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV 2010). This response is limited
to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is
a standard notification given to all our requesters and should not be taken
as an indication excluded records do, or do not, exist.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at
301-837-1966 or john.simms@nara.gov. Thank you for contacting the NARA
OIG.

Respectfully,

John Simms
Counsel to the Inspector General
Office of Inspector General
National Archives and Records Administration
301-837-1966

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS TRANSMITTAL MAY BE CONFIDENTIAL AND MAY
BE PROTECTED FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND/OR ATTORNEY
WORK-PRODUCT PRIVILEGES. THE INFORMATION IN THIS TRANSMITTAL MAY ALSO BE
SUBJECT TO ADDITIONAL CLAIMS OF PRIVILEGE IF COVERED BY A DISCOVERY
REQUEST, OR A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST UNDER 5 U.S.C. § 552. IF
YOU RECEIVED THIS TRANSMITTAL IN ERROR, ANY STORAGE, COPYING, DISSEMINATION
OR DISTRIBUTION OF THIS TRANSMITTAL AND/OR ATTACHMENTS IS PROHIBITED. IF
YOU RECEIVED THIS TRANSMITTAL IN ERROR, PLEASE NOTIFY THE SENDER VIA A
RETURN E-MAIL TRANSMISSION AND DESTROY THE TRANSMITTAL.

Your request for Fee Waiver for the FOIA request NARA-NGC-2019-000481 has been
determined to be not applicable as the request is not billable.
Additional details for this request are as follows:

* Request Created on:
05/22/2019
* Request Description:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I seek any and all documents in the agency's possession that pertain to the WikiLeaks website or organization from January 2006 to the present date, including but not limited to emails, memos, notes, briefings, reports and other documents related to, mentioning or generated as a result of:

* guidance and instructions for employees regarding visiting the website or otherwise reading or learning about it in the news

* internal reactions to the website's existence and disclosures

* damage reports regarding the website and its disclosures

* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential leaks to the website

* efforts to identify, investigate and/or mitigate potential unauthorized viewing of the website or news reports analyzing it and/or its contents

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Emma Best
* Fee Waiver Original Justification:
As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by
reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees
be waived.
* Fee Waiver Disposition Reason:
N/A